Trains 'unreliable and filthy', meeting told

Concerns about unreliable train services and cleanliness on board have been raised at a meeting between rail passengers and operator West Midlands Railway (WMR).

Issues raised by Leominster Rail User Group secretary Jim Scott, and also Herefordshire councillor Jenny Bartlett, included complaints of just a two-minute window to change trains at Hereford for Birmingham services.

Other passengers reported a lack of replacement bus services and filthy toilets with no soap.

WMR's head of performance Kelly Henshall said she would take the concerns back to colleagues after the meeting in Leominster, which was organised by the Green Party.

Mr Scott said trains from Leominster arrived at Hereford two minutes before outgoing Birmingham trains, which meant "you either run across the bridge, or you have a 59-minute wait".

Another rail user said it would be "nice to go out for an evening and not worry about getting back home", but they said there was "very rarely a bus replacement".

Rail & Bus for Herefordshire representative Jago Frost said there had been recent improvements in service reliability, but the cleanliness of Birmingham-Hereford trains "had got worse".

"They start the day with no soap in the toilets, and by the end of the day they are filthy," he said.

Ms Henshall said service improvement was headed in the right direction overall.

She said WMR wanted "to keep our new trains nice and clean – and we get audited on this".

The company had gone from 20% of services cancelled last summer to 4% currently, she said, adding: "Having sufficient train crews has been part of that."

Asked whether the recent crash between a Transport for Wales express train and a farm vehicle at a rail crossing near Leominster had caused WMR to look at how it operated services in rural areas, Ms Henshall said: "Safety is at the heart of everything we do."

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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